Those who know me know that I prefer desktop computers. You just get more horsepower and a better bang for the buck. More importantly, when I’m off I’m off. Yes, I own laptops, and other portable computers. I will use them to write email, surf the Web, and occasionally write part of a book. I don’t use them for development unless I have absolutely no other choice.
Most importantly, when have no development tasks for one or more of these machines, they get put over on the bench, some hooked to KVM (Keyboard Video Mouse) switches, have some Linux distro installed followed by BOINC and my favorite projects.
One of the projects I contribute time to is Rosetta@home. This project, like many others, has been deployed to fight COVID-19. Yeah, clunky old machines around the world are trying to save your life while you are too engrossed in your iDiot phone to notice.
This army of old computers had a recent breakthrough.
You should watch that video. Then you should dust off those old desktop computers you’ve got laying around and start participating in BOINC. There are many projects working on COVID-19 when they aren’t working on cures for AIDS, cancer, and other human fatalities. All you have to do is set it up and let that old computer run.
[…] move to Linux. Many will become “spare” computers and people will finally decide to see what BOINC is all about. When $10-$20 can really increase your crunching, you do […]